When’s the last time you were in San Antonio?

Tourists flock to San Antonio’s River Walk even when there’s not a boat parade. (Express-News file photo)

My partner and I try to spend at least one night per year in San Antonio. It simply seems like something all Texans ought to do. We were a couple of years behind so we stayed two nights this time, trying to catch up.

We always get into one of those hotels with rooms that let you look down on the San Antonio River, and the eternal parade of people strolling on the River Walk. I like watching that procession, and I don’t even understand why.

Sure, it’s a pleasant place to walk, close to the water and in the shade of magnificent cypress trees, and there’s always music of some kind coming from somewhere. But people in the parade, well, they don’t do anything. They just stroll, and seem pleased to be there. Now and then they’ll pause, and look at a baby mallard swimming beside its mama, and then they’ll move on, and on, and on. The River Walk is one of the great tourist draws in this country, and I find it a mystery.

Another mystery, for me at least, is that as quick as I get into that town, my personal compass flips 180 degrees. This doesn’t happen in any other town I visit, and for years I wrote in the column that San Antonio is the world’s only city where the sun rises in the west and sets in the east.

Nobody has ever challenged my claim, and when we were there last week, the sun rose in the west on schedule.

P.S. My partner says she likes San Antonio air because it smells like corn tortillas.